The image of Trump to many people and yes I am speaking to Christians as well! Many people view him as a type of messiah who will save the world and make everything okay again, failing to realize that he is a fallen human that spreads lies for popularity just like the next man. Some are too conservative for their own good with their silly “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” caps!

I firmly believe that a great amount of Americans accepted Trump as president because they were happy that the last president is gone and a great amount of that amount are happy because of the last president’s skin color. Here’s the reality though, majority of these conservatives would have never voted for Trump if he would have ran against someone like Bush. They too would laugh at him and yell “DUMP TRUMP!”

These same conservatives would have been in the streets acting like children as well if he would have beaten someone else conservative in the presidential race! WAKE UP! There’s nothing he can fix! There’s nothing that he will do better! Crime still exists! Violence still exists! Political lies still exists! 3,000 babies are still being murdered in their mothers womb!

REPENT YOU CHRISTIAN MEN AND WOMEN WHO WORSHIP THIS MAN!!!! We have one Lord and His name is Jesus! Love God and not the world!

A Catholic’s Mary worship will go so far as to replace Jesus with her, for example: calling Mary the Ark of The Covenant. Lets look at Exodus 25 much has been made of the symbolism of the Ark, and every aspect of the Ark points to Jesus. The acacia wood symbolized our Lords humanity. The gold overlay denoted His deity. The Law inside the Ark pictured Jesus with the Law of God in His heart, living in perfect obedience to it. The pot of manna spoke of Jesus as the Bread of Life. Aarons rod prophesied the resurrection by the atoning blood that was sprinkled on it. St. John 20:12 Mary looking into the empty tomb of Jesus, “And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.” What Mary saw was the new mercy seat, the perfect mercy seat. Consider again what Mary saw. She witnessed two angels sitting at each end of the slab which had held the broken body of our Lord. That scene points us back to the Ark of the Covenant where two cherubim hovered over its blood splattered mercy seat! There is no more need for the Ark. Jesus has fulfilled all that the Ark stood for. He was deity who took on flesh. He rendered complete obedience to the Law, being made perfect and becoming the source of our salvation Heb 5:8-9. His blood was shed for our sins and His victory is attested by the fact and the power of His resurrection. Just as the Ark was designed to be a symbol of the presence of God in the midst of His people, Jesus is the ultimate expression of God’s love, care, and presence. He is our Ark. He is our Law. He is our Manna. He is our Budded Rod. And, thank God, He is our Mercy Seat. Jesus has fulfilled all the Ark’s prophetic implications. Jesus is our Ark of safety, peace, and redemption. We have no need for any other Ark, Catholics will follow men like Scott Hahn who has fed them these lies about Mary and have stolen Jesus deity and placed it on a sinner.

Anabaptism developed as a radical religious and social movement during the Reformation in 16th century Europe. “Anabaptist” means “re-baptiser” and refers to the movement’s central rejection of infant baptism in favour of a conscious act of adult baptism into the Christian faith.

Anabaptist congregations separated themselves from all forms of state control and avoided contact with society outside their own communities. They rejected both the Roman Catholic Church and the new Reformed Protestant Churches.

The Mennonites, the Amish, the Hutterites and other similar groups originated in Anabaptist congregations. Militant Anabaptist uprisings occurred in Europe, notably at Münster in Germany in 1534, leaving the movement with a reputation for disrupting the established social order.

Anabaptists who fled to England were persecuted during the reigns of Henry VIII and Mary I. Anabaptism influenced several nonconformist sects in England and the New World, especially the early Baptists, but the word “Anabaptist” was generally a term of abuse during the Civil War and Commonwealth era, used to denote any potentially subversive religious doctrine.

The English Baptist movement has its origins in a Separatist congregation established at Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, around 1606, which was led by John Smyth (c.1550-1612), a former clergyman who had become disillusioned with the Anglican church. Smyth’s followers, along with a small number of sister congregations that had formed in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, were persecuted as dissenters and forced to flee to the Netherlands in 1608.

At Amsterdam, the English Separatists came under the influence of the Mennonites, an Anabaptist sect which claimed to practise a pure form of Christianity similar to that of the early Church. A central Mennonite tenet was that infant baptism was meaningless. A deliberate act of adult baptism was essential for entry into the faith. In 1609, Smyth and his followers baptised themselves and confessed Jesus as Saviour to form what is generally regarded as the first Baptist congregation.

After Smyth’s death in 1611, Thomas Helwys (c.1550-1616) wrote the first English Baptist confession of faith (A Declaration of Faith of Certain English People Remaining at Amsterdam). In 1612, Helwys led his congregation back to London where he established a Baptist church at Spitalfields. Despite their attempts to disassociate themselves from the Mennonites, the early Baptists were persecuted and stigmatised as Anabaptists. Both Helwys and John Murton, who succeeded him as pastor of the Spitalfields congregation, died in gaol, but the Baptist faith grew steadily throughout England and Wales. During the 1630s, the movement split into two groups: the General and Particular Baptists.

“General” Baptists followed the doctrines of Smyth and Helwys. They believed in free will rather than the Calvinist doctrine of predestination taught by the Presbyterians. Baptists laid strong emphasis on individual personal salvation and an acceptance of persecution as an opportunity to testify for Christ. Pastors were elected by the casting of lots. Set prayers and recitations were regarded as a discouragement to true religion and some congregations encouraged prophesying, where members said whatever they believed God had inspired them to say. Travelling General Baptist preachers were regarded as troublemakers by local civil and church authorities throughout the kingdom.

The General Baptists were challenged by the emergence in London of John Spilsbury’s Calvinist

“Particular” Baptist like General Baptists, the Particular Baptists believed in the separation of church and state. Both groups encouraged lay preachers and came to accept total immersion rather than pouring as the preferred method of baptism. However, Particular Baptists practised stricter regulation of their congregation and have since the beginning held to the “Doctrines of Grace” which teaches election and predestination before John Calvin was around. They believed in salvation for a “particular” few, rather than the “general” salvation preached by the General Baptists. The Particular Baptist churches held regular meetings of delegates in London and issued the London Confession in 1644 (not all Particular Baptists hold to this Confession but rather hold to Scripture alone), which declared that men must be allowed to follow their own conscience and understanding. By 1658, the Particular Baptists were organised into four large regional associations covering the whole of England. There was no national meeting, but the London pastors greatly influenced the movement as a whole. Many officers and men of the New Model Army were Particular Baptists, including the regicides Ludlow, Axtell and Hewson. John Bunyan (1628-88), author of The Pilgrim’s Progress and other spiritual works, served in the New Model Army during the final stages of the English Civil War and became a Baptist in 1653.

During the early 1650s, army Baptists flourished in Ireland under the sympathetic administration of the Lord-Deputy Charles Fleetwood. However, the religious radicals were highly critical of the establishment of the Protectorate. In 1655, Fleetwood was replaced as Lord-Deputy by Henry Cromwell, who succeeded in forcing the leading Baptist officers to resign their commissions or to leave Ireland.

Baptist congregations continued to meet after the Restoration, but they were regarded with suspicion by the church authorities. Many congregations prospered in America.

When the world hates you remember that it hated Christ Jesus our Lord first. When they no longer want anything to do with you remember that God promised that He’ll never leave you nor forsake you. When they speak ill of you and point out your shortcomings and bring up when you missed the mark point to the cross and remember the grace of God. When the Most High calls us out of darkness sin will never feel the same due to the chastising hand of God which is a blessing because it teaches us that He cares for us. Friends and certain relationships will no longer be the same because light and darkness can not mix, of course this has nothing to do with being self righteous nor should we adopt that attitude because it’s only by God’s sovereign grace that any of us are eternally saved. A true friend is Jesus Christ who willingly gave Himself for us and if we want to be true friends or wonder what a true friend looks like then look to Scripture for guidance and remember Jesus. Dear friends in this life we will make mistakes and miss the mark but why continue to run back to the same dirt that God has pulled us out from? This world is full of iniquity and Satan is the ruler thereof and he wants to destroy us and our testimony in a major way. Being a Christian is not easy and there’s a lot of things and relationships that we have to let go of though it may be painful. Remember that we have Jesus and there’s no relationship more important than the one we ought to have with Him. Any relationship that we have that does not glorify God we have to get rid of. Evangelism is one thing but a full blown relationship is to be avoided. Brethren I have played the hypocrite roll many days and the outcome is never comfortable because I tend to use grace for granted and please people rather than God. Saints of God by the grace of God you have been redeemed and called out of darkness, trust the Holy Ghost for He will lead you in truth. Let us avoid worldly relationships and cultivate the spiritual one that truly matters, the one with Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.

1 John 2:15-17 KJV

[15] Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. [16] For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. [17] And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

“For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Matthew 12:40 (KJV)

All over the world this Friday, Christians and Catholics will be observing Good Friday. The Catholic church teaches that Jesus went to the cross on a Friday and rose from the grave on a Sunday morning. It sounds right, and mostly everyone across the board accepts those days and that chronology. Only one problem. It’s completely wrong according to the biblical account of what happened.

The Catholic teaching is based on 1 Corinthians 15:4 which says this:

“And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:” 1 Corinthians 15:4 (KJV)

They count Friday as one day, Saturday as the second day and Sunday as the third day. 3 days. Only it’s not 3 days, it’s barely a day and a half according to the Jewish calendar.

Jesus did not rise on Sunday morning, the bible says that He already “was risen” by the time Sunday morning rolled around.

Read it for yourself:

“Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.“ Mark 16:9 (KJV)

“In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.“ – Matthew 28:1,6 (KJV)

In all the gospel accounts, Jesus is already risen on Sunday morning. There is no account of His rising at that time, it has already happened. So if the Roman Catholic timeline is followed, you would have at the most 30 hours of elapsed time. Not even close enough to the “3 days and 3 nights” that Jesus Himself said would transpire.

THE JEWISH DAY STILL STARTS THE WAY IT DID IN GENESIS WHEN GOD CREATED IT

In the first chapter of Genesis, we see God creating our 24 day, made up of 12 hours of “evening”, and 12 hours of “morning. This is exactly how we still chart time here in 2018. But the Bible says that God started the day at 6:00 P.M. Make a mental note of that because when we come back to this point in just a bit, you’re going to need to remember it.

Jesus says in Matthew that His crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection would match that of what happened to the prophet Jonah in the Old Testament.

Here it is:

“For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Matthew 12:40 (KJV)

There you have it, the required time mandated by Jesus Himself is 3 full days, and 3 full nights. Jesus was crucified on Wednesday morning, and taken down off the cross before sundown at 6:00 P.M. when Thursday would begin. To us that’s still Wednesday night, but the on the Jewish calendar, 6:00 P.M. starts the next day.

“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.” John 19:31.32 (KJV)

THE TWO SABBATH DAYS

Now please note the phrase “that sabbath day was on a high day”. This is not the regular Saturday sabbath day, it is a special, high sabbath day. What was so special about this “high day”? It was the Passover! This Passover fell on the Thursday and was followed by the days of unleavened bread as found in Leviticus:

“In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD’S passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.“ Leviticus 23:5-7 (KJV)

Now that you see that the Passover was on a Thursday. In the King James Bible, Acts 12:4 uses the word “Easter” instead of the word “Pascha”, which means Passover. Which is precisely what Luke was referring to, the pagan holy day of Easter on that Saturday, and not the Jewish Passover which had already finished. Acts 12:3 says that Peter was taken during the “days of unleavened bread”, right?

“And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.)” Acts 12:3 (KJV)

Well, I just showed you that according to the Old Testament, the “days of unleavened bread” came after the Passover. So in Acts 12: 4, Luke rightly records it as being Easter and not the Passover which had already expired. (See how simple it is when you actually believe what you read where you read it?). Now, let’s get back to those 3 days and 3 nights.

HE AROSE!

Remember now, in the week Jesus was crucified there are two sabbath days, not only one. You have the high Sabbath day on Thursday, which was the Passover. And you have the regular Sabbath day which fell on Saturday as they do each week at the end of the week. Mark records it this way:

“And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.” Mark 16:1,2 (KJV)

When the ladies brought the spices, it was after the High Sabbath day of Passover. It was not after the regular Sabbath day on Saturday. They brought the spices on Friday. The first day of the week is not Monday, but rather it’s Sunday.

Saturday being the last day of the week, the day God rested from all His labors. So as the two Marys coming to see the body and mourn at sunrise Jesus was not “rising”, but rather had already risen.

“And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.” Mark 16:6 (KJV)

A Quick Review Of The Timeline:

• Jesus crucified on the cross 9:00 A.M Wednesday morning

• Taken down off the cross at sundown

• Buried for 3 nights – Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

• Passover, the high Sabbath day on Thursday

• Buried for 3 days – Thursday, Friday and Saturday

• The regular Saturday sabbath day

• Jesus rose from the grave Saturday night at 6:00 P.M. – the start of the first day of the week, Sunday

• Tomb is empty before the sun rises on Sunday when people start arriving

Now we have the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy to be ” in the heart of the earth” for “3 days and 3 nights”. The Roman Catholic ‘Good Friday’ timeline is short by nearly two full days, because they fail to see the two Sabbath days that occurred. They only see the one on Saturday. They also fail to understand the Jewish calendar and how their days were set up according to Genesis 1. When you realize that at 6:00 P.M. the current day ends and the new one starts, that changes just about everything.

How can your timeline be right when you don’t even know what time it is?

So while you spend this week observing “Good Friday”, just keep in mind that you’ve already missed the day of His ‘passion’ by two whole days.

The Roman Catholic Church has many traditions, practices, and doctrines that many Christians still hold onto to this day. One of those doctrines is “Works Salvation”. This heresy teaches that one must do good works and not sin to earn a place in Heaven or be rejected by the Most High and get thrown into Hell. Hogwash!

Salvation is entirely a work of God. He causes our Election, Justification, Regeneration, and Sanctification. In short, Salvation is of the Lord (Jonah 2:9).

If Salvation lies in the hands of fallen man that means we never needed Christ because we would have everything under control. This is of course nowhere in Scripture and I consider it blasphemy to say that we can lose our Salvation and have to keep it because it suggests that Jesus needs our help keeping us secured and we can produce a work equal to His perfect sacrifice. Scripture teaches that if righteousness came by keeping the law (works) then Christ would have died in vain (Galatians 2:21).

We need to understand that man is evil (Romans 3:10-12)! Our nature and heart is wicked and rotten to the core (Jeremiah 17:9), the very moment conception happens we are sinful (Psalms 51:5). Until the Holy Ghost gives us the new birth we are God haters by nature (Romans 1:30). Yet many honestly believe that we are capable of doing good works for Salvation.

I am not saying that we should not use our gifts and do good. As Christians we should be doing our Father’s will every chance we have but we have to understand that the only reason we can do any works is because of the Holy Ghost that indwells us. Left to ourselves we would never do anything for a Holy God! We are the workmanship of Christ Jesus not our own! Therefore any works that we do gives God the glory not our flesh, if it was our workmanship then we would no longer need the Most High and boast (Ephesians 2:9) because it’s our nature. It’s amazing Grace that caused our Salvation and it is a gift (Ephesians 2:8) from God, so where does it add us into the equation?

Our righteousness, Scripture teaches, is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6) and that is speaking of a menstrual cloth in comparison. So if even our very righteousness is stained how do we expect to produce anything good apart from God? Again, it is the Holy Ghost that quickens (makes alive) us, changes our life’s, and works through us (Ephesians 2:1-5) by Grace.

Therefore it is Jesus that holds (John 10:27-30) and keeps us (Jude 1:24). Our Savior Jesus Christ died and shed His perfect blood that we may stand justified, His blood covered our past, present, and future sins and granted us Eternal Life (John 3:16).

It must first be understood that Baptists are Congregational. By this, I mean they are local independent bodies subject to the Lord and his word. Fellowship and association are blessings depended upon like faith, practice and order among Baptist bodies, but, fellowship and association with “sister” churches are no substitute for the greater blessing of fellowship and association with the LORD by adherence to His word.

Each Baptist body is first bound to maintain what that body believes to be scriptural doctrine, practice and faith in that particular gospel covenant which makes them a “Church”

Beyond this, the name Baptist is depended upon that doctrine, that practice and that faith.

These are Baptist distinctives by which a Baptist body and not simply a Christian body is identified.

Any Christian body which possesses these distinctives ought to identify itself as Baptist.

Any Christian body which does not hold these distinctives but is identifying as Baptist, ought to drop the name, or take the biblical distinctives which are Baptist marks of identification.

A denomination is in my opinion a wrong term, Baptists with biblical faith and practice and order are not a denomination and a church without the Baptist name but holding to biblical faith practice and order are likewise Baptist and also not a denomination.

A church with the name Baptist, but without biblical faith, practice and order is not Baptist no matter the name.